Reshaping the cityscape

Have our cities become our biggest blind spots? Why are Indian cities such an assault on the senses? India’s growing economy and the reshaping of the global order have together exposed the fault lines in our cities.

Our cities are changing faster than we can imagine. It is no coincidence that when a country captures the imagination of the global political economy and anchors global growth for a prolonged period, there is a sustained increase in urbanisation and the transformation of its cities. For instance, between 1800 and 1910, the urbanisation rate in France jumped from 12.2 per cent to 38.5 per cent while Germany went from 8.9 per cent to 48.8 per cent. In North America, during the same period, Canada’s urbanisation rate increased from 6.5 per cent to 41.6 per cent and in the US, it increased from 5.3 per cent to 41.6 per cent. Today, this is true of India too. As we continue to manage this growth and navigate the Indian version of urbanisation, we also face countless conundrums that need to be resolved.

Alas, our lack of prioritisation of cities has emerged as a collective blind spot. Blind spots can be fatal, and they lead to unintended outcomes. Though our collective conscience on the role of cities has bottomed out, a lot needs to be done. At this point, it is pertinent to note that cities are humankind’s longest-running experiment — starting from the early cities of Harappan civilisation to the Smart Cities of today, humankind has been perfecting and tinkering with this long experiment and there will be an Indian version of this experiment too, sooner or later. But prior to that, many pressing issues demand action. Some of them are specific to India’s version of this experiment and need a more ingenious solution.

The ugly city phenomenon

First, as our cities continue to grow, we need to address the question of why our cities aren’t aesthetically pleasing. A drive around Indian towns is an incessant assault on the senses — constant honking, the obnoxious clutter of billboards of all sizes, the poor layout of markets, and the deteriorated state of key places. Where is our sense of belonging? The answer lies in the deafening silence on urban design. The simplest definition of urban design that I found was on the website of the San Diego government: ‘Urban design is the visual and sensory relationship between people and the built and natural environment’. Focusing on urban design increases our sense of belongingness. Coming from Lucknow and having found a home in Delhi, I do not want my cities to replicate what a typical city in the West looks like.

Urban design: A higher pursuit

Urban design makes economic sense too. European countries such as Spain, Portugal, France, and Italy have been able to preserve their local aesthetics, which undergird the sustained momentum in their tourism industry. This becomes even more important for public spaces. Private spaces at best can be asked to maintain their original façade and abide by some regulations. The magic happens in public spaces. Some Indian states like Rajasthan, Goa, and Kerala have been able to deliver on urban design. However, we have a lot of ground to cover. The higher pursuit of urban design is that it will prevent our indigenous culture, language, arts and cuisine from slipping into oblivion. The economic rationale of our cities need not be divorced from the finer nuances of urban design and all that comes with it.

Eyes on the street

Second, Indian cities need to reclaim the role of public spaces as a key critical component of a well-functioning city. Public spaces can take many forms but there is a sharp contrast in how recent urban infrastructure is focusing more on private spaces. Public spaces provide what the leading urban thinker and activist Jane Jacobs once pointed out—‘eyes on the street’ and are a key deterrent for anyone to consider committing a crime. Besides, public spaces in cities form a melting pot of equality, social cohesion, new ideas, city identity, creative expression, regular interaction between citizens, and increase trust between people and the government. Well-managed and planned public spaces have economic value and, in many instances, they have led to an increase in the price of nearby residential neighbourhoods. Delhi’s Connaught Place, Mumbai’s Bandra Bandstand, Mall Roads in our hill stations, and Bengaluru’s Cubbon Park provide all these benefits. South Korea’s Cheonggyecheon Riverfront is a classic example of rethinking public spaces and the numerous benefits coming out of it.

Mainstreaming resilience

Third, the role of all other interventions would mean next to nothing if we are not able to mainstream resilience. Given the infrastructure deficit, development plans mostly focus on the issues of water, sanitation, roads and others, while little attention is paid to urban shocks to local ecologies due to flooding, earthquake and pollution. However, given the rising global understanding of the need for urban resilience, Indian cities have begun their work on mainstreaming resilience across all infrastructure projects, financing, planning, and resource allocation. Given the critical role of urban planning, it remains our most potent tool. The Central government has already launched the Climate Smart Cities Assessment Framework (CSCAF) 2.0, which will handhold cities to combat climate change. It provides a way ahead through 28 indicators across five categories — energy and green buildings, urban planning, green cover and biodiversity, mobility and air quality, water management and waste management.

The critical and cost-effective way to pursue resilience is to use the urban ecosystem approach. It advocates that cities can use existing natural resources to reduce their vulnerability. This approach needs to be part of city planning to reduce risks and increase resilience. This approach referred to as using nature-based solutions (NBS), is the cheapest and surest way to achieve resilience. Some important steps that increase urban resilience to disasters include tree planting, permeable pavements, vegetation planting for landslides, green roofs, mangroves and watersheds, among others.

Make space for children

Lastly, cities worldwide were primarily designed by men, for men. As ideas of inclusion deepen, we need to rethink how our cities make space for children. But prior to discussing solutions, it is worth noting that as per Urban Habitat III (the UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development) safe cities do not merely include crime prevention but also ‘enhancement of individual rights including the physical, social and psychological integrity of a person’. Thus, the role of well-functioning public spaces and adequate law and order at the city level becomes critical. But there are specific interventions we can target to make cities inclusive for children.

There are 472 million children in India and every fourth child lives in urban areas. I am confident if we measure urbanisation in a less stringent manner, this number would be much higher. Against this backdrop, and how much time children spend outdoors, it is important for us to make road safety paramount. The growing urban sprawl and the accessibility of children to physical activity need attention. We also need to focus on making public transport safer for children.

Only seven of a hundred Anganwadi beneficiaries live in urban areas. This shows that we have a long way to go in creating infrastructure for our children. There are examples that provide us with very encouraging results — in Colombia, they are reclaiming public spaces and giving them to public schools, Bangladesh is training its planners on child-sensitive urban planning, Boston is engaging the youth to use part of the city’s budget, in Rajasthan, the Dungarpur police station encourages police personnel to be sensitive to child survivors’ needs, Kerala has created its first child-friendly police station, and the Urban95 initiative of the Bernard van Leer Foundation aims to create cities that also meet the needs of a three-year-old, who, on an average is 95 cm tall, hence the name Urban95.

Required: A reimagining

No country has become prosperous without undergoing industrialisation, without the labour force shifting out of agriculture, and consequent urbanisation. But these transformations are marred by their own set of challenges. Countries have addressed these challenges in their own ways. In fact, their response to urbanisation is their contribution to this longest-running human experiment. However, the paradigms of such interventions remain constant — economic growth, urban land, planning, governance, infrastructure, mobility, safety, inclusivity, and resilience. I strongly believe India has already started to tinker with creating its own set of well-functioning cities. We have three advantages on our side — we have one of the longest histories of prosperous cities across the subcontinent, so we have history on our side, the advancement in technology, which resolves many issues with considerably lesser transaction costs, and the rise of the Indian style of consumption and demand management through frugal innovation and resource efficiency.

It is now India’s turn to embrace the daunting task of managing urbanisation. In doing so, we can hope to address our collective ignoring of our cities. With India’s population, it will not be an easy task, but if done right, the gains will be manifold. Just as Europe and America succeeded in the 19th and 20th centuries, East Asia in the 20th century, and China over the last 30 years in leveraging cities to improve prosperity and resolve historical issues, I am confident India’s success with its cities will define the 21st century.

The author is a former Public Policy Specialist at NITI Aayog. He is a Mason Fellow from the Harvard Kennedy School and Li Ka Shing Scholar from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Singapore. His latest book, ‘India’s Blind Spot’, was released by HarperCollins recently.